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NEWS: Red hot Hoole hoping to build in Ballarat

He’s been in red hot goalscoring form over the past month, and now Newcastle Jets ace Andrew Hoole is seeking to continue his strong pre-season play against one of the Hyundai A-League’s glamour clubs, Melbourne City.

The Jets will travel south to Ballarat in regional Victoria on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s pre-season friendly against John van’t Schip’s side at Morshead Park.

Newcastle, who will again be mentored by interim Head Coach Clayton Zane this weekend, will be seeking to record its fifth pre-season friendly victory in a row having earned wins against Liaoning Whowin FC (China), Eastern SC (Hong Kong), Kitchee SC (Hong Kong), and Edgeworth FC (Northern NSW) over the past three weeks.

Local junior Hoole, 22, has contributed significantly to the strong run of results having netted five times in the last four fixtures.

“I think we have had some good results of late and we need to keep that momentum going as the season gets closer,” Hoole told local press after first team training at the University of Newcastle on Friday. “We have got a good game against Melbourne City this week so we will look to play well again and build.”

“This [Melbourne City] is probably our best test so far and we can see how we are really going once we come up against them on Sunday.”

Hoole’s confidence levels are currently high after finding the back of the net three times throughout the club’s pre-season tour of China, and twice in the Jets’ 4-0 win over the reigning PS4 NPL NNSW Premiers and Champions Edgeworth last weekend.

The former Broadmeadow Magic flyer credits a shift in his focus and approach around the box to his good goalscoring form, and says he has had a lot of positive people around him supporting him this pre-season.

“Obviously it’s nice to score a couple of goals and help the team out whenever I can,” Hoole said. “I want to build confidence going into the season and make sure that I am focussing on keeping that form going.”

“Every time in and around the box I am now looking to get shots away, [while] in the past I have probably looked to play and go. If I can shoot a lot more and be a lot more confident in the front third than hopefully I can score more goals.”

“There have been a lot of people behind me telling me to be confident in the front third and make sure that if I have the chance that I pull the trigger. I just need to know when to do that and when to pass and move.”

Hoole and his teammates will kick-off against Melbourne City - who lost 4-1 to Wellington Phoenix in a friendly in Townsville last week - at 3:00pm on Sunday afternoon. Regular updates will be available via the club’s official Twitter handle @NewcastleJetsFC.

“Obviously they [Melbourne City] will be looking to bounce back [from the Wellington Phoenix defeat], which is good for us because it means they will be hard to beat and hard to break down,” Hoole said. “But we just need to focus on ourselves and make sure that we put in a really good performance.”